Ayrampo - botanical name 'Tunilla soehrensii' - is a species of the genus Tunilla, which is a sister genus of the much more common genus of the Opuntia, known as 'prickly pears', 'nopalea', 'tunas' or 'paddle cactuses'. Same as the Opuntia the Tunilla have their own 'prickly pears' (English) or 'Kaktusfeigen' (German). In Spanish there exist various names: 'nopales' (North-America), 'tunas' (South-America) and 'higos chumbos' (Spain) for the fruits of the tribe of Opuntieae. However mostly all these names refer to the fruits of the Indian Fig Opuntia (O. ficus-indica), which is only one certain species of the sister genus of the Opuntia.

The botanist Alberto Vojtěch Frič named the genus of the Tunilla 'Airampoa'. Sources state the name 'Ayrampo' to be of Quechuan origin[1][8]. Therefor several other transcriptions exist, like "Ayranpu[7][8]", "Haranpu[8]", "Ayrampu[6]", "Airampo[2][3][6]", "Airampu[9]" or "Irampo[1]".

Former scientific name
Opuntia soehrensis[1]/ Opuntia soehrensii[2][4][8]from 1919 (first descripcion by Nathaniel Lord Britton and Joseph Nelson Rose[8]) to 2000 (establishment of the genus Tunilla by David Richard Hunt und James Iliff).

Discription

Tunilla soehrensii grows into dense, tangled structures not higher than 30cm[1] to 50cm[2].

Cladodes
Tunilla soehrensii typically grows with flattend, but almost cylindrical[1], rounded cladodes (also called platyclades) with a length of up to 6cm. They are protected with 7cm long spines.

Flower
Its 5,5cm long flowers are of dark red[1][3]or yellow[2][3][8], sometimes of orange, red or pinkish color.

Fruit
Its 2,5cm long fragil fruits have a dark red color[1][5](or green[2][3]? {probably when immature}), containing seeds of similar red color[1][2][3][8].
The fruits can be harvested when they turn red; between April and first half of June.[5]